About

What is our project all about?

Mankind’s consumption of ground water is increasing dramatically. With today’s filter technology it is not yet possible to clean up waste water or salt water as replacement for potable water. Additionally, we are producing more and more Carbon dioxide, which is responsible for global warming. There is no efficient way to separate it from exhaust gases in order to prevent it from getting into the atmosphere.

We want to make it better! We at CNM Technologies have developed the thinnest plastic film available. It is only about 1 nanometer – a millionths of a millimeter – thin and makes such filter and separation processes faster and more energy-efficient.

In a conventional, thick filter membrane, gas molecules are first dissolved into the membrane material upon adsorption at the surface. They then will diffuse through the bulk of the membrane and are finally released at the other side. Individual molecules might even hinder each other on the way through the membrane. All these processes run faster or slower depending on the type of the molecules. To keep them running it is necessary to press the molecules through the membrane with a pump consuming a lot of energy.

Conventional thick membrane

If the thickness of the membrane is reduced to the nanometer range, small gas molecules reaching the membrane are simply passing through when hitting a pore with matching diameter. Larger molecules which are not fitting to the pore diameter cannot pass. They bounce of the wall. CNM's secret lies in the reduction of the thickness and the creation of the right pores to separate the desired gas component from a mixed gas flux.

Ultrathin Carbon nanomembrane

To produce such a membrane, molecules are deposited on a substrate, e.g. the surface of a metal foil. These molecules are subsequently cross-linked by radiation, thus forming a stable layer, which can be released from the original substrate and transferred to a mechanically more stable support. The supported membrane can be then included into a membrane module and used for gas separation.

Molecules in a self assembled monolayer during crosslinking process

In order to show that to our potential customers and end users, the CNM team wants to build such a demonstrator.
It consists of a module, in which our membranes are assembled, a small pump, and some measurement devices. A gas mixture, such as an exhaust gas containing carbon dioxide, runs through the module and is split into a clean gas flux with reduced carbon dioxide load and the separated CO2. The measurement devices track the composition of the three gas fluxes and the energy consumption of the pump.

Scheme of the planned demonstrator module

The money CNM Technologies asks for will be spend for the final development of the membrane prototypes, the assembly into a module corpus and the integration of corpus, membranes and measurement tools into a ready-to-use prototype/demonstrator.

With the help of this demonstrator we will be able to bring our technology faster to the market. The improved separation and filtration performance will help to solve some of the 21st century’s environmental challenges.
We would be happy, if you could support us on our way!

Rewards

We will give four different rewards:

an e-mail with a big "Thank You" and regular updates on our progress (for a donation of >5 €)

a 1 x 1 cm² piece of a silicon wafer with a CNM logo (for a donation of >150 €, first 10 backers get it for a donation of >140 €)

a 1 x 1 cm² piece of a silicon wafer with an original Carbon nanomembrane on top (for a donation of >500 €, first 5 backers get it for a donation of >470 €)

a 1 x 1 cm² piece of a silicon wafer with an original pyrolized Carbon nanomembrane on top, the pyrolization makes the membrane excellently visible on the silicon (for a donation of >1.000 €, first 5 backers get it for a donation of > 950 €)

Risks and challenges

Our membrane already show a promising characteristic for the above described separation tasks. Nevertheless we need to finalize their development with an appropriate carrier and support structure to make them mechanically stable. A thickness of only 1 nm is great for gas separation, but not really good for handling and assembly activities! Therefore, we have to add a mechanical support layer. This is the first part of the development activities.
Having finished this part of the project, we go for existing "infrastructure" in the next part: the corpus of the module and the measurement devices are state-of-the-art technology and there should be no risk in getting them. The structure of the membranes in the corpus (how many membranes in parallel and how many in series) can be simulated upfront, but still need some confirmation by testing in order to get a realistic result e.g. on pressure losses.
The summary is: some challenging tasks, but we are confident to solve them!